Park Ridge joins airport-noise panel

April 07, 2004|By Dean Geroulis, Special to the Tribune.

The Park Ridge City Council, overcoming years of opposition, has agreed to join the Chicago-funded O'Hare Noise Compatibility Commission.

Monday night's unanimous vote followed months of aldermen attending commission meetings to determine if the group's mission of noise mitigation in the suburbs surrounding O'Hare International Airport fit with Park Ridge's concerns about the airport's affect on the quality of life.

The commission has not taken a position on O'Hare expansion--long a concern for the city--but has focused on soundproofing homes and schools, Park Ridge Ald. Dawn Disher said. Along with providing funds for soundproofing, the commission also studies technical solutions to the noise problem.

Ald. Jeffrey Cox praised the commission for its focus on jet noise.

Along with suburban municipalities and school districts, the commission includes representation from Chicago's Department of Aviation, the Federal Aviation Administration and the airlines.

Park Ridge's inclusion marks a significant reversal for the community.

As one of the co-founders of the Suburban O'Hare Commission, for years Park Ridge held a position adversarial to Chicago's plans to expand O'Hare.

When Chicago Mayor Richard Daley proposed creating the noise commission in 1996, Park Ridge officials dismissed it as a way to build a consensus for a new runway. Suburban O'Hare Commission members, communities near the airport, were prohibited from joining the Noise Compatibility Commission.

Everything changed in 2001, when five independent aldermen were elected to the Park Ridge City Council and immediately pushed for a break from the Suburban O'Hare Commission.

Participation in that organization cost Park Ridge about $65,000 a year in dues. In recent years Park Ridge contributed more than $1 million toward litigation and other efforts aimed at stopping O'Hare expansion and promoting development of a new airport in the south suburbs. Membership in the Noise Compatibility Commission is free.

Joining, however, does not necessarily mean Park Ridge will get any more of the money earmarked for noise abatement. Homes in the community do not meet current criteria for noise abatement programs.

Park Ridge keeps airport expansion news in the spotlight on an Internet site it maintains about the airport with links to the Noise Compatibility Commission and the Suburban O'Hare Commission Web sites.